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Family Member Interview

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Assignment:

Interview friends, family members, or coworkers. Ask them to tell you what does “Cardiopulmonary Arrest” mean to them. Ask them if they know what “MI” means? Ask them what they perceive happens during “CPR”. Reflect on your findings and post your thoughts about this to your blog. Feel free to add additional questions if you would like, or educate those you interview if they have any misconceptions.

So I interviewed my mom about what she thought cardiopulmonary arrest meant as well as MI.  Her response was “doesn’t that mean your heart stops and you can’t breath”.  When I used the terminology “heart attack” instead of MI or myocardial infarction, my mom knew what I was talking about.  Furthermore, I asked her what she thought treatment was for cardiopulmonary arrest was.  Her response was CPR and a shock.  My mom has taken a CPR class before so she was knowledgable about that; however, it was interesting when I asked what the defibrillator does for the heart.  She stated, it restarts the heart, kind of like jumper cables.  I feel like that is definitely a major misconception; I educated her on what the defibrillation of the heart really does and how CPR is what brings the heart back into a normal rhythm.

 

Writing According to You

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When it comes to writing, I’ve learned a fair share of rules over the years. Of course, there’s the typical rules, like “i before e except after c,” “don’t use contractions,” “don’t have one sentence paragraphs,” and more. E. Shelley Reid shares more “realistic” rules for today’s writer in my piece “Ten Ways to Think About Writing: Metaphoric Musings for College Writing Students” by using metaphors everyone knows. All the rules she writes about are important to think about. However, the ones that stuck to me have more to do with either my personal writing style, my own struggles in writing, or lessons I’ve learned from previous writing classes.

Reid knows that writing is hard. However, it doesn’t always have to be. Reid mentions that “writing is made harder than it has to be when we try to follow too many rules for writing” (Reid 3) and wrote this piece to help make writing easier for all of us. Her three main concepts for writing are:

  1. Write about what you know about, are curious about, are passionate about (or what you can find a way to be curious about or interested in).
  2. Show, don’t just tell.
  3. Adapt to the audience and purpose you’re writing for.

With writing, it’s no fun to just write about whatever. It’s more interesting for you, as a writer, to write about something you are passionate about. It also helps it make more interesting for your reader to read. If you are into your piece, so will they.

However, you have to be specific for your readers; they can’t read your mind. Reid uses the situation of show-and-tell to further the concept. When we were kids, show and tell was the time to show something important or cool to our classmates and tell a story about it. However, if an object was too big, too valuable, or too fragile, our parents may not have let us bring it to show-and-tell, leaving us to resort to just telling. This becomes a problem because we means one thing to you can mean a completely different thing to someone else. When it comes to description, Reid says it best: “if you’re going to show me…what you’re thinking, using only language, it will take several sentences, perhaps a whole paragraph – filled with facts and statistics, comparisons, sensory description, expert testimony, examples, personal experiences – to be sure that what’s in your mind is what’s in my mind” (Reid 7). It may take longer, but it gets your point across.

Another useful tip Reid expresses is “focus on not losing them [the readers] somewhere along the way” (Reid 10). How do you do that? Easy. First, you mention the purpose at the beginning of the piece to get your point across to the reader. If you don’t mention it right away, the reader may get confused and miss it. Reid compares this to driving down the freeway with friends from out of town, when suddenly, you point at a pink house along the freeway without any warning beforehand and they look around, confused, and miss it. Instead, give them insight on the purpose and then inform them of the purpose. Then, they’ll be ready and know what to look for throughout the rest of the piece, seeing what you wanted them to see. You also need to be sure to repeat your purpose throughout the piece. Reid states it best: “If you only say it once or twice – there, in the last paragraph, when you finally figured out the most important point, or maybe once at the start and once at the end – we might miss it, or only get a piece of it” (Reid 12). We have been told since we were younger that repeating the same thing over and over again was bad in an essay; but it’s actually not. Reid parallels it with the chorus of a song you would hear on the radio. The chorus is the most repeated and retained part of the song. You could hear the song once and you already have the chorus almost memorized. The purpose of your writing is the same as the chorus of the song. Reid states that  “the core idea…needs to appear early and often, using the same key words, even, as an anchor for all the complex ideas, and examples you’re connecting to it, as a place for the audience to recognize the main idea and find a way to ‘sing along’” (Reid 12) and “as you’re revising, add your chorus back into some key middle parts of your essay – the beginnings and endings of paragraphs, like commercial breaks, can be places that readers expects repetition – until you start to really feel uncomfortable about your repetition…and then add it one more time, and it might be enough, but it shouldn’t be too much” (Reid 12). Repetition is actually good for your piece because it gets the purpose out there remains in the reader’s mind throughout the piece.

One of the hardest parts of writing is finding a way to utilize both your opinions and reasons together in a way that people would understand and be interested in. Most people try to just do one or the other, but it never ends up the way they want. Reid explains that “writing just your opinions, theories, and arguments is a lot like serving plain Jell-O: it seems like you’re doing something productive, but there’s just not much substance to it” (Reid 13). With no substance, readers get bored easily. On the other hand, “writing just your examples, reasons, and details is a lot like bringing cherries to the party: it’s interesting and lively, but readers don’t know what to make of it all” (Reid 13). This is also bad because there’s no personality in the piece; readers will not see yourself in the piece. Reid explains that “good writers blend argument and evidence as they write, so that readers get both elements together all the way through. Good revisers go back and adjust the recipe, seeking a workable combination” (Reid 14). In other words, finding the balance between opinions and facts keeps your audience interested and understanding of your purpose.

Now, I know writing may not be the most excited part of school, or life, in general. However, with the right set of rules, anyone can tell their story. “When you take control and anticipate your reader’s needs, you can make writing work for you in very powerful ways even without a lot of time” (Reid 20).

No one else sees the world

Metaphors & Fully Understanding Them

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Metaphors can mean so much or so little to different individuals depending on how much they interpret it; which shows how much they paid attention to the topic. Depending on the knowledge an individual knows about the topic is how well they will understand the metaphor. For example, If the speaker, writer, or reader begins to explain the topic  in more depth they usually tend to use metaphors only because they want to get their audience to receive a good image of what he/she is trying to get us to understand. In the article, “Ten Ways To Think About Writing: Metaphoric Musing for College Writing Students” the author, E. Shelley Reid, uses metaphors to explain to college students, like myself, how easy it can be to write an essay or a response to an essay question on an exam . By doing this he is teaching college students indirectly. He states a metaphor which is then followed by his own example or interpretation of the metaphor.  In my opinion, I believe I learn more when my professors are teaching me indirectly rather than directly. For example, In math class anyone can sit at a desk and read the textbook; understand what I have read because I’ve gone over it more than once. But if a classmate were to ask me for help when he would get stuck on a problem I would not be able to help him; only because I had not had much experience with those problems. Therefore, I would not be aware of short cuts or how we received certain numbers. In some weird way this explains why teachers/professors/adults try to teach us by showing examples, visuals, and videos. The author, Reid, explains how important it is to explain the thoughts in your head well enough for your ideal audience to understand. 

He says, “The Little Green Ball and Some People: Doing Right” (p. 6).

He explains this metaphors in his example by pointing out how broad of a statement that is. Once you realize how much of a broad statement it is, you begin to ask yourself little questions that allow us to think critically. For example, I ask myself what is “little” and “light green or dark green”. Soon enough I found myself understanding why this is an important aspect to keep in mind while when writing. The audience is unaware of what is going on in your brain therefore as a writer it is our job to explain in detail to get a full idea of what our “thesis statement” or “the main idea.” As a writer it is also our job to be aware of who our primary audience will be; so we know what style is in their interest. Shelley Reid, the author of this article, also explains how as a writer we need to be aware of who will be reading our piece of work.

He says, “Lost Money And Thank-You Notes: What’s In An Audience” (p. 8).

One might be thinking “what does money have to do with keeping our readers interested in our writing.” The two things correlate because the style of writing we use depends on who our audience is. As  writers we should  target a certain audience and keep our ideal audience in mind as we are writing our essays. By keeping our ideal audience in mind throughout the process of writing hopefully at the end our ideal audience understands our thoughts. Once again, it depends how well you explain or describe your thoughts so the readers are able to see your personal point of view on topics. For example, in politics when election time is coming around politicians who are running keep the people’s self interest in mind in order to receive an electoral vote. Therefore when they are giving a speech, their main goal might be to persuade citizens to vote for them so they talk about the citizen’s self interest. This is what catches their attention and eventually convinces citizens to vote for them. Again, proving that we should keep our ideal audience in mind while we are writing. Another thing we should keep in mind as writers our goal is to not lose our audience half way through our essays. We need to keep reminding our readers what our thesis statement is in some way throughout essay without being too annoying. The author also talks about this in his article.

He says, “Pink Houses & Choruses: Keeping Your Reader With You” (p. 10)

When I first read this metaphor I was so confused to what the author meant but the more I read the more I understood it. It is obvious that this metaphor means way more than what is says. The author uses this to show an example on how easy it is for readers to wonder off which does not allow us understand their point. The author will just be ranting at that point. Personally, as a writer, I ask myself multiple times what the point of me writing my essay is. This allows me to be aware of how easy it is to get distracted, I mean we are only human. For example, when I read long articles for research sometimes I forget what I am reading because I have been reading for a long time but as I continue reading it suddenly makes sense. This is because the author does not allow me to wonder off for too long since they are constantly repeating their main idea indirectly. In order to repeat our main idea indirectly we need to be specific with arguments and examples we use throughout our essay. The author uses the metaphor,

He says, “Fruit Jell-O: Balancing Arguments & Examples” (p.12)

He uses Fruit Jell-O as an example because any fruit jello can taste good as long as one uses the correct ingredients. The same concept can be used while writing an essay. When I am writing, I state my argument to back up my main idea and as I am typing examples come to mind subconsciously. This is where my fifth grade teacher constantly reminding my classmates and I to choose arguments and examples wisely pays off. She said our essays will not make sense unless our examples some how correlate. For example, I can show many random facts and examples in my writing but I would only be able to use about one or two of them in my essay. We can not use all of the examples that come to mind because it will just throw the readers off which does not allow them to make connections with previous sub-points in our essays. As readers, overtime we learn to identify what paragraphs in articles are important and which ones are just extra facts and examples. The author explains this in his article as well.

He says, “Wash-And-Wear Paragraphs” (p.14)

This metaphor simply means, that we will repeat certain points, especially our main one throughout our paragraphs. The main idea isn’t suppose to be a one time explained example; it is meant to be repeated to get the idea wrapped around the readers brain. Reid referred to “wash and wear” because we wash and re-wear clothes in different styles each time. This makes it seem as if we have so much clothes when in reality your closet is half empty. It all depends on how many different ways we are able to explain our main idea. For example, in lower level math classes we learned about probability. How many different combinations I pull out of the bag with a red marble. It all depends on how many different color marbles are in the bag along with how many marbles of each color there are. One can figure this out by multiplying the number of each different type of color in the bag. This resembles to this metaphor because we have to repeat our main ideas multiple times in different ways.

When you are writing and are stuck or are not full sure if what you wrote will catch our ideal audience’s attention and satisfy them. Remember this blog post and keep in mind how to improve your writing at least a little. While writing always remember to keep your ideal audience in mind, do not get side tracked in the middle of your essay, use examples that have a correlation with your topic, and keep repeating your main idea but not in an annoying way.

 

Work cited

Reid, E. Shelley. “Ten Ways To Think About Writing: Metaphoric Musings for College Writing Students”. Ed. Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky. Vol. 2. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor P, 2011. 3-23. Writing Spaces. Web. 17 Feb. 2016

Gold Coast Science Network Conference

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Anyone around this Saturday in Oxnard should consider swinging by the Gold Coast Science Network Conference at Oxnard College.

Several of our AARR group members and I will be on hand to discuss our current robotics efforts.  I will be presenting the keynote address cover an overview of our recent work to engage students with coastal monitoring via the portal of new technologies.

Come check us out!

Anderson Keynote

 

Ten Ways to Think About Writing

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After reading E. Shelley Reid’s article, “Ten Ways To Think About Writing: Metaphoric Musings for College Writing Students” I better understood the analytical approach to many writers’ works, I was able to realize that many writers have seemingly similar issues in their works and as they were pointed out in the article I realized that I also have those issues at times.

Early on one of the issues shown was the “set rules” that are in place during our younger years that then restrict us from furthering our writing abilities. These rules that are implemented are set as a barrier for students and are often torturously difficult to break down, it leads to overthinking and writing that is often stripped down of their originality because of their fear. Although structured writing is necessary and becomes very favorable in certain instances it is the free flow writing that makes a writer evolve. Free flow writing leads to an array of ideas and possible writings, granted structured writing is used to perfect these ideas but they are fore fronted by the unstructured writing.

Writing has always been a struggle for me but above all I struggle with not adding enough detail. There have been moments in writing when I thoroughly try to add more details but then I feel like I’ve over done it or that the piece is no longer mine. By adding more detail I felt like the writing was no longer mine, my writing style is a bit less detailed but still to the point and those ” rules ” that I previously touched on have limited me to feeling like I must over detail my work to have it achieve a better grade. Thus creating a detachment from my writing; leading to a rift in my readers interest which as Reid wrote about. Readers interest is enormously important which is why there must be a feeling of attachment from the author and their work.

Although I think it is important to have structure in your writing it is also important to have the ability to have a free form sense of writing to evolve your writing and not stay stagnant in the cookie cutter idea of what is supposed to be done.

 

 

Blog #2 “How to Read Like a Writer”

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In the essay, “How to Read Like a Writer” it explains what it means to read like a writer. When you read like a writer you are supposed to work to identify some of the choices the author made, so that you can better understand how such choices might arise in your own writing (72, Bunn). Some of us ask ourselves why is this really important or why can’t I just read “normally”? the answer is because RLW helps you to figure out the text you are reading while helping you to build on your own writing (74). Using the famous poem “Phenomenal Woman” by Maya Angelou, I am going to go over the concepts of what it means to read like a writer.

In order to RLW you must start asking yourself questions about the text before you begin reading. To start off you might ask yourself the author’s purpose for writing this piece, you could start off by doing some historical research about Angelou. After conducting your research, you would learn that Angelou was a civil rights activist and also spoke on the behalf of women’s image through her writing. So with this information you can interpret that her purpose for this poem was to increase the self-esteem of all women and to inform men that all women are “phenomenal” and they are all very different, but that does not make them less beautiful or phenomenal. The text is a published one instead of student-produced, which makes a difference as to the way it is written. The intended audience would women in the sixties and seventies to demonstrate to them that it is ok to be proud of who you are and to be a woman.

RLW also means answering questions as you read, such as: the author’s purpose for this piece of writing and who is the intended audience, the type of language the author uses and the effect it has on the piece, what type of evidence does the author use to back up his/hers claims, are there pieces of the text that you are confused about, and how does the author transition between ideas (79-81, Bunn). As we discussed prior the intended audience is women during the sixties and seventies. The diction used throughout the poem is very simple and dull, but it reflects the well-defined text. For example, she uses words like “fire” and “eyes” which are very simple words, but they convey that Angelou is proud of who she is and to be a woman. Angelou uses own personal experiences as her evidence to assert her ideas. There is only one piece of the text that I got slightly confused about, it was: “Men themselves have wondered, what they see in me. They try so much, but they can’t touch my inner mystery” (4, Angelou). These lines may be very confusing because of the diction she chooses, but the words choose are what make the stanza so interesting. Once the reader reads the rest of the stanza they are able to interpret that she is saying that she has yet to find a man that accepts her fully with all her faults. The author transitions between her ideas by putting each main idea into a stanza. While reading you should also take notes and highlight throughout, so you can later reflect on what you read and incorporate into your writing. The goal to RLW is to ask yourself all of those questions to clearly evaluate the piece you are reading and transfer it your own writing and to develop questions as you read based on the text (82-85, Bunn).

Works Citied:

Bunn, Mike.”How to Read Like a Writer.” Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. Ed. Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky. Vol. 1. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor P, 2010. 71-86. Writing Spaces. Web. 2 Feb. 2016.

Angelou, Maya. “Phenomenal Woman.” Phenomenal Woman: Four Poems Celebrating Women. New York: Random House, 1994. N. pag. Print.

 

maya

Admission Letter

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October 25, 2020

Martha Minow

J.D. Admissions Office

2nd Floor Austin Hall
Cambridge, MA02138
Phone: 617-495-3179
Subject: Application to Harvard Law School (Judiciary Degree)
Dear Mrs. Minow,
        I am seeking admission into the Judiciary Degree program at Harvard Law School. This program has pioneered countless legendary professionals such as Barack Obama, Elena Kagan, and Michelle Obama, not to mention countless other successful lawyers and judges. Their success can be closely linked to having an amazing education, the same education that I would be so honored to partake in.
         I am currently a senior at CSU Channel Islands and will be graduating in the Fall with a Bachelors in Political Science and Sociology and a minor in Economics. I have worked extensively to become the successful student that I have become and that is how I know that  I would be a great asset to Harvard Law.
         Having Harvard in my educational background will let my fellow colleagues and prospective employers know that I am capable of withstanding intense work environments and still being capable of succeeding. By achieving my law degree I would join the United States Air Force as an Air Force Judge Advocate General, I would take 10 years to perfect my craft in the military but when I decide to retire from the military I would become a civil rights lawyer to help overturn and create fair and just laws that are implemented for the people by the people.
       With a judiciary degree from Harvard I would be able to not only fulfill my dreams but the dreams of others as well, with a law degree I can help those who have no help in their legal battles. I would bring Harvard even more spotlight and help it become a forefront for civil right law education, I would continue to uphold the national respect that is already instilled throughout not just the nation but the world as well. I strive for greatness and I know Harvard Law will help me achieve the greatness that I will reach.
I look forward to meeting with you for an opportunity to further discuss my qualifications.
  Sincerely,
               Lindsay Sanchez

Understanding Genres Letter

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February 16, 2016

 

Cindy Mijangos

One University Dr.

Camarillo, California 93012

Santa Cruz Village Rm D209 B

 

Dr. Stacey Anderson

CSU Channel Islands

Camarillo, California 93012

 

Dear Stacey,

I am writing this letter so you are able to come aware of the different types of genres we expose ourselves to by reading and later on using when writing. It is amazing how humans learn more indirectly rather than directly. We use those genres later on when we write depending on the topic and who our audience will be. There are reasons on why we understand genres and thesis statement from previous readings that we use in our writing without noticing. In the reading, Navigating Genres, Kerry Dirk states,

“It is quite rare that teachers of writing get to write so directly to students in such an informal manner. Although textbooks are directed at students, they are often more formal affairs meant to serve a different purpose than this essay” (p. 251).

Some of us can not read a textbook and automatically understand what we are suppose to know. If someone is able to read information and understand it without any examples, in my opinion, they are geniuses. In order for me to understand something I need to see more than one example. Then I either discuss it with myself by writing notes or discussing it with a colleague and eventually come up with my own example. Also, in order to understand the type of genre being used, you must first understand the thesis statement. Dirk refers to the following quote in his article

“Location may not be the first, second, and third most important qualities of writing, as it is for real estate, but location is surely among the situation elements that lead to expected genres and to adaptions of those genres in particular situations” (p. 255)

All this quote means, depending on who you are writing to or who your audience will be should be what your genre revolves around. But that is only stating the obvious, your thesis statement should revolve around the genre along with the examples you use in your writing. This is so as soon as the audience understands the thesis statement and hopefully connect it with the genre then make sense of what persuaded the author to write their book, essay, quote, music etc. If the reader enjoys the genre of what they read, then they will either read more articles etc., based on that genre or use it as I explained.

Sincerely,

Cindy Mijangos

Dirk, Kerry. “Navigating Genres.” Writing Space: Readings on Writing. Ed. Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky. Vol. 1. West La-fayette, IN:  Parlor P, 2010. 249-262. Writing Spaces. Web. 12 Feb. 2016

Briana The Freshman 2016-02-24 02:57:49

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Center Focus

A center of focus, people debate weather it’s a visually or a physical state of tranquility. Personally when I have a center of focus is through visuals. I see a visual image like an eclipse when writing. This is typical when I am gathering my thoughts it starts off pitch black. Whenever I am just spitting ideas I see almost like a little glimpse of light. Then slowly more and more light begins to appear as I begin to gather and connecting thoughts. Then finally when it all comes together when my final piece of work is done I see the full light and a moment of relief is just there.

 

Audience

Audience is tricky to see or go about in a particular writing style. Writing to go formal or completely informal is tricky because one may never know how writings get passed out and mentioned to other readers. For example, this Blog right now it is tricky to figure out a common ground because I myself am trying to figure out a common ground for this particular writing style. Desiding whether to be more descriptive or simple with words is tricky because making a common ground with a reader but still being formal is a problem.

 

Fruit Jell-O

Balancing quotes could often be tricky. Correctly blending quotes is even more difficult when not using the right type of structure. Even more than ever, I often find myself using a trick that I was able to learn back in High School. This trick I learned was a great way for quoting structure and is called a quote sandwich. I have previously discussed this in my video/ class lesson on quote sandwiches but the basics are a really great and simple way to get the job done. “The Bun” this is basically the introduction and how you want to create the quote to come off as. Next, there is “the meat” this is the good stuff the juicy detail that you want to share with the reader. Lastly, there is the bottom bun and that is to reiterate what the main point of using the quote was. Through being taught this lesson I have discovered that this is a lot more effective in my writing and actually could draw a reader even more into the writing.

 

 

Short time Writing

 

Short-term writing was always around me in my educational journey. Through distract testing I always-found time writings to be a pain/ hassle. In high school I was actually able to get my structure in writing down and in a crunch. Through AP classes I discovered that there was a specific formula when it came down to writing. The writing started with an hour time so one would have 5 minutes to plot/ outline the thesis conclusion and three supporting topics for the essay. With this time one would have 10 minutes to look for quotes and create the quote sandwiches used to be in the essay. Within the next forty- five minutes an essay would be made and to the best ability with some possible tears and hand cramps on the paper.

 

Pink Houses

Drive by’s are what I just explained in my video on through quoting. This is difficult when I write because I there am so many details that I want to be able to mention but not discuss and just get away with. However, I do see how this is a bad idea for my writing because if the reader is anymore like me I do remember the small details and try to connect the dots and see how the detail even correlates to the story.

 

RLW Reading

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There are novels that go into depth on the structure of the authors message and how they convey it can be through technique, style, organization but there are also readings that transcend this. There are readings that elevate these structures by having detailed descriptions of what they want the reader to see or understand. By understanding these key elements it becomes not only easier to grasp as a reader but as a writer, there is a saying that says that you are only as good as writer as you are a reader and I believe that is true. They correlate immensely when there is that realization of what the reader is trying to convey and what you will convey in your writing, when you are able to read like a writer.

Being able to grasp this understanding is the first step but once you have shifted your reading habits to analyze the key points where the author has deliberately added detail words or dialogue to shift your perspective you will be able to add that to your writing. When I realized this I was able to re-read my  favorite novels with a different sense of understanding, for example: ” She sat on the chair instead, hands limp in her hand, eye staring at nothing, and let her mind fly on. She let it fly on until it found the place, the good and safe place, where the barley fields were green, where the water ran clear and the cottonwood seeds danced by the thousands in the air; where Baba was reading a book beneath  an acacia and Tariq was napping with his hands laced across from his chest, and where she could dip her feet in the stream and dream good dreams beneath the watchful gaze of gods of ancient, sun-bleached rock.(Khaled Hosseini)” This excerpt exemplifies the use of imagery and rhetoric, the use of senses further illustrates the setting and the narrators’ sense of self. The ability to have a sense of placement within the reading adds to the visualization and the understanding.

Having the ability of reading like a writer is essential to becoming a better writer because having the understanding as to why a writer uses certain techniques to create certain understandings and findings furthers the realization of the true meaning behind the readings. This will add to your skill set and writing techniques and it is something that I would like to perfect in my writing.